Zhaozhao and Su Yuan lagged behind. When they reached the end of the cave, Zhaozhao was instantly stunned by the sight in front of her.
A few seconds later, she turned her head to look at Song Yao on the other side. Well, great. Her cousin was also shocked, which made her seem less strange!
There was a tree in the cave, a dead tree.
Actually, it wasn't quite right to call it a dead tree. After all, no dead tree was like this: the roots were completely withered, but the branches were full of life, lush and covered with vines. The intertwined vines were also filled with many tiny flowers.
What kept it alive and growing so vigorously was a tree spirit core full of spiritual energy in its trunk.
As a tree demon, Zhaozhao could clearly feel that this tree was already lifeless. But paradoxically, this dead tree faintly had the aura of becoming a spirit.
For some reason, Zhaozhao's heart suddenly started beating very fast. She stared at the tree spirit core. She always felt that that thing... shouldn't be there.
But if not there, where should it be?
The ghu A Qing looked at the tree with a pious look in her eyes. She knelt on the ground on one knee, bowed respectfully to the tree, and murmured:
"May the divine tree Amo bless me and grant me immortality."
As soon as A Qing finished speaking, the tree suddenly emitted little green starlight.
The starlight landed on them, as if instantly taking away all their fatigue.
Zhaozhao reached out to catch the falling fine spiritual starlight. The starlight landed on her hand and instantly turned into a leaf.
Seeing this, Song Yao waved a sword qi and cut the leaf in Zhaozhao's hand into pieces.
"Don't touch it randomly. Be careful of getting hurt." Song Yao pulled Zhaozhao behind her to protect her and frowned to scold her.
Zhaozhao obediently responded, "Okay."
The ghu heard Song Yao's words and gave a strange laugh. She sized Zhaozhao up and down twice.
Song Yao was annoyed by the laugh. She pointed her electronic peach - wood sword at the ghu and shouted angrily, "Explain clearly. Why did you kidnap those children and collude with the Demon Administration Bureau to send them to the Demon Realm? What on earth are you up to?"
A Qing snorted and said mockingly, "Not send them to the Demon Realm. Should I leave them with you hypocritical and disgusting humans?"
"You—!"
Seeing that Song Yao was about to lose her temper again, Zhaozhao remembered the consequences of letting her cousin act impulsively the previous times. She quickly comforted Song Yao, "Cousin, don't be angry..."
Su Yuan had been listening for a long time and was getting a headache from the noise. He cast a spell to silence them all.
Zhaozhao suddenly found that she couldn't speak. She looked at Su Yuan innocently, pointed at her mouth and made whining sounds. She wanted to ask why.
She wasn't even arguing. Why was she also not allowed to speak...
Su Yuan was stunned for a moment when he saw Zhaozhao's blinking eyes. He subconsciously wanted to lift the silence spell on her, but then he remembered that Zhaozhao always said something "startling". Even a dragon's heart couldn't bear it after so many times.
Well, it was safer to keep her silenced too.
Thinking of this, Su Yuan withdrew his gaze. He took a drop of Song Yao's blood from afar and dropped it on the tree.
The moment the blood landed on the tree spirit core, the green spiritual energy surrounding the tree began to turn scarlet. The branches of the tree grew wildly, and more and more flowers bloomed on the vines.
Several strands of spiritual energy were released from the newly - bloomed flowers and wrapped around Song Yao.
After a moment, the scarlet spiritual energy gradually dissipated.
"Do you understand now?" Su Yuan's cold eyes fell on Song Yao as he lifted the silence spell.
Song Yao's chest heaved violently. Cold sweat dripped from her forehead. She looked at A Qing in disbelief and murmured, "You... How dare you? You made those children form a bond of life and death with this tree?!"
Using blood to water a thing full of great spiritual energy for a long time to form a bond of life and death, using blood to nurture a spiritual object, and in turn, the spiritual object would nourish the contract owner and protect the contract owner with its own spiritual energy.
This was the method A Qing used to protect the children.
A Qing sneered and loudly retorted, "How dare I? Why shouldn't I dare!"
"You humans are cold - blooded, heartless, and extremely hypocritical! Those shameless villagers asked for your help and you came... Heh, did you see that tower? Did you see the bones inside? There, without exception, all the dead were baby girls."
Song Yao was frightened by A Qing's fierce and resentful look and took a few steps back. Remembering the bones all over the ground she saw at that time, she couldn't say a word for a long time.
A Qing laughed wildly and stepped forward menacingly, "Don't you understand why there are no women in Posa Village? It's their own sin! The ignorant villagers value sons over daughters. They regard baby girls as a symbol of bad luck. As soon as a girl is born, they feel ashamed in the village. For this reason, they specially built a tower to burn those poor and innocent children!"
Song Yao thought of that tower and murmured, "That abandoned baby tower..."
"What abandoned baby tower? It's clearly a baby - girl tower full of wronged souls!" A Qing interrupted Song Yao sharply.
There were no female students in the school, and no baby boys in the abandoned baby tower.
The feudal and ignorant people had personally strangled the girls in the village. Years later, they tasted the bitter fruit they had sown themselves.
The ghu, who had come from afar and was saved by a little girl in the village, discovered the bloody secret of this village and rescued all the girls.
She took them away from suffering when they were born and raised them well. In the end, she became the evil and harmful monster in their mouths.
"However, even if the people in the village made mistakes in the past, they are now looking for their children. Maybe..." Perhaps people all harbored illusions and were unwilling to admit the baseness of their own kind. Song Yao stammered, trying to convince others and herself.
But halfway through her words, she couldn't deceive herself after all.
The village head said that there were fewer and fewer girls in the village and the men couldn't find wives... Were they really feeling sorry for the lost children?
No, they weren't.
"Cousin, are you okay?" Zhaozhao looked at Song Yao worriedly.
Song Yao turned around dejectedly and left, leaving a sentence, "Don't follow me. I want to be alone for a while."
Zhaozhao watched Song Yao's disappearing back and felt very depressed. She lowered her head and stared at her toes in a daze.
"What are you thinking about?" Su Yuan walked up to Zhaozhao and asked her softly.
Zhaozhao looked up at Su Yuan and then at the strange tree. She said, "I don't understand. I don't understand why someone would want to kill their own children. Why don't they love their own children?"
The demons on Wutong Mountain were very kind to their cubs. The master was also very kind to her, her senior brothers, and sisters. Even though they weren't the master's biological children, the master always cared about them.
Why were humans like this?
Human emotions were too complicated, love, greed, hatred... Su Yuan couldn't explain it to her. In the end, he just said, "Not all parents love their children, and not everyone is worthy of being a parent."
Seeing that Zhaozhao still looked confused, Su Yuan said softly, "There are still many things you can't understand. Sometimes, not understanding is also a good thing. How much you know determines how much you have to bear. It's very tiring." After saying that, Su Yuan turned around and was about to walk out, but Zhaozhao reached out and grabbed his sleeve.
Zhaozhao looked up at him innocently and asked, "What about you? You know so much. Are you tired?"